Sheffield Sharks vs Plymouth Raiders

Sheffield Sharks vs Plymouth Raiders

Recap

Plymouth Raiders picked up their second defeat of the season against Sheffield Sharks following an 83 – 78 defeat at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield.

Joonas Järveläinen remained a casualty for the Raiders and despite the club working tirelessly, new signing Kinu Rochford was not cleared to play following his former club Garonne refusing to give clearance of his release.

The Sharks took full advantage of Raiders missing players and ran out to a 14 – 3 lead in the first five minutes before Coach Love called a time out. An unsportsmanlike foul called on Zac Wells and a couple more baskets followed for the Sharks before a Neil Watson lay-up halted the Sharks 16 – 0 run. Watson added a three as did Brandon Penn, his first of six but Sheffield ended the period with a strong 29 – 11 lead.

The second period was a much more even affair with Penn finding the hot hand for the Raiders claiming 14 of their 20 points but it was Sheffield who stretched their lead by a further point to 50 – 31 at the interval.

The third period started as the second finished with both sides trading baskets before seven quick points from Nick Tomsick and a couple more threes from Penn finished the quarter with Raiders pulling the deficit back to 10, 66 – 56 going into the fourth.

Raiders reduced the gap to six with five minutes remaining in the game before Sheffield called a time out. Following the time out the Sharks came out attacking the basket and two fouls on Penn saw him have to take a seat after picking up his fifth fouls with a little over three and a half minutes remaining. Both sides again traded baskets for the remainder of the game and despite Watson hitting his fourth three in the last play of the game, it was the Sharks who held on to win 83 – 78.

Penn led all scorers with 30 and was one rebound shy of his first double-double for the club. Watson added 18 and Tomsick 12 from the bench for the Raiders. The Sharks also had three players in double figures with Dirk Williams leading with 18, Chris Alexander on 17 and Zach Gachette adding 15 from the bench.